Cold Chain Management Solutions

Despite some challenges, it’s clear from the overall benefits that utilizing a wireless sensor system is the better option for monitoring cold chain temperatures. With their reliable record-keeping capability and ability to provide real-time data in a variety of ways, a system utilizing wireless sensors makes it far easier for restaurants and other food service organizations to minimize loss and comply with applicable regulatory agencies. As already stated, wireless sensors provide real-time data that is stored in the cloud, making it accessible at all times to the company’s managers/decision-makers and in whatever display format is required.

There are several factors to consider when initiating a cold chain temperature management system. A full solution involves industrial-level hardware such as wireless sensors and base stations called gateways, monitoring software and applications, effective connectivity that functions well in a harsh environment, and a network service provider partner with a good go-to-market strategy.

Rather than start the discussion at the beginning with wireless sensors and gateways, we’re going to jump first to the ideal wireless technology behind your cold chain monitoring network – LoRaWAN.

LoRaWAN (Long Range WideArea Network) is an extremely robust technology that outperforms alternative technologies for batteryoperated devices in challenging cold chain environments. This technology enables low-powered, batteryoperated devices to wirelessly communicate over long distances (2-3 km in urban settings and 6-10 km in rural settings). LoRaWAN achieves its robustness to interference and its long-range communication properties from the use of chirp spread spectrum radio modulation, used in military and space applications for decades. LoRaWAN is also unique in that it can be deployed on public or private networks. The ability to deploy on a private LoRaWAN network is advantageous for several reasons including:

>Location – The area/ environment in which you plan to deploy your network may not have a public LoRaWAN network in place.

> Remote or inaccessible sensor locations – If you need to deploy sensors in extremely remote areas or in difficult to access areas (such as deep basements), a public network may not be accessible.

>Large deployment area – If your plan is to deploy a very large number of LoRa sensors, having your own LoRaWAN network can decrease the overall cost.

>Security – Avoiding a public LoRaWAN operator and using your own private network enables you to own your data end-to-end.